Some Miscellaneous Stuff

This afternoon I donated my 120th unit of whole blood. For this achievement, I received my 15 gallon pin to add to my blood donor flair collection, plus a t-shirt and lovely purple water bottle. You know, it really doesn't seem like that long ago when I was celebrating my 100th unit.....

I realized when I was hanging out laundry the other day that I haven't shared any photos of the garden yet this year, so here they are. This garden bed contains 2 yellow zucchini plants (foreground), 3 pepper plants -- yellow banana, red and purple (at the left hiding behind the zucchini), 4 tomato plants (center), and 2 rows of giant sunflowers that I hope to harvest to have sunflowers heads to put out for my birds this winter (far right side).

Here's the other raised garden bed, containing radishes (pretty much done for the year now), leaf lettuce, beets, carrots, onions, and green beans. The orange flags were to mark the rows before everything sprouted, but I could probably take them down now. The white stuff between the rows on both these gardens is horse bedding (wood shavings). I was hoping it would help to keep the weeds down between the rows and I could till it into the soil as compost in the fall.

Remember a few years ago when I did a garden makeover at the front of the house? Here's how it looks today. Now that the plants and flowers have had a couple of years to grow and fill in, this garden has turned out exactly like I envisioned (hoped) it would. The lilies are especially fantastic this year.

I think this sunflower was planted by a chipmunk. It's right outside the basement window and I decided to let it grow. It has a perfect blossom and I'm sure the birdies will love feasting on the seeds later this season.

I finally got my fish children into their outside pond for the summer. They're not at all cooperative about having their picture taken and usually stay under the big rock when they see someone standing by their pool, but I did manage to catch a couple of them hanging out by the water lettuce.

Here's a little bit closer (but not necessarily better) look at them. They've adapted well to living in the backyard pond and I'm sure they won't be too happy coming back in to their 20-gallon tank in the fall after living in 60-gallon luxury for the summer. I have until October sometime to decide whether I want to invest in another larger aquarium for inside the house.......

Some Miscellaneous Photos

Here are some miscellaneous photos I've taken in the last couple weeks.......

A female Pileated Woodpecker showed up at the big suet feeder right outside the back door. That was really exciting as it's the first time I've have a pileated in the backyard. She's come back a few times since then, but she's not a regular daily visitor yet.

Oops! Dropped some suet! Check out those huge feet.....I think that each square on that mesh is about 1 inch.

Here's a pretty snow-covered evergreen in the backyard......just one of many. The snow covered boughs provide some nice protection for the birdies that roost inside the snowy shelter.

Look what arrived in the mailbox today!! Nothing like a couple seed catalogs to get my mind off the sub-zero windchills and 2+ feet of snow piled up on my garden beds.

Looking forward to some fantastic photos in 2011 with the fabulous new camera that my Honey Bunny gave me for Christmas. Thank you Mr. Johnson!

Hello Spring!

I heard and saw the first Eastern Bluebirds of spring in my backyard this morning. They're definitely a welcome sign of spring. So I decided to take a walk around the backyard to find some other signs of spring. Come on along and let me show you what I found.....

Tiny hyacinths blooming close to the house

Daffodils are up a few inches

Daylilies are coming up too, but it looks like these ones caught a little frostbite!

I love the brilliant color of these red-twig dogwoods!

I let my inner fire-bug out last Sunday morning and burned off some dead grass and weeds at the driveway edge (pink arrow) and in a wild patch of the front yard.

I'm hoping next week there might be a nice, calm day that would be

perfect for the fire-bug and her butane torch to burn off the dead stalks of the backyard wildflower garden.

I was looking for any signs of life on the trees and spotted these pretty sprouts on a maple branch

And since the bluebirds are back now, it looks like I'm going to have to become much more vigilant against those pesty house sparrows.

Some Miscellaneous Stuff

Our census form arrived in the mail today. Per the instructions in the cover letter, I completed the enclosed census form today! It will go out in tomorrow's mail. Glad that's finally over....it will be interesting to see what the final results of this whole census program will be (or what kind of snafus will be revealed before the completion of the process!)

While I was getting supper ready I saw a small flock of birds fly past the kitchen window. It looked a bit like a flock of starlings, but when they landed in the oak tree, a quick look through the binoculars revealed Cedar Waxwings! One of my favorite birdies! And the first time I've seen them in my yard this year, so they're bird #24 on the 2010 backyard list.

And, amazingly enough, this silly squirrel still hasn't figured out how to get past the baffle.

I watched this squirrel run up and down the tree and out on branches several times. He would sit there on the branch and look over at the feeder, but he still hasn't figured out that he could leap from the branch to the feeder! Maybe the side opening on the feeder isn't large enough for this fat squirrel to confidently launch himself into -- or there's just so much seed on the ground that he can stuff himself without having to resort to any extreme measures to obtain food. I promise if I ever catch the squirrel in this feeder, photographs will appear on this blog!

Greetings from the Neglectful Blogger

Sorry, I've been kind a neglectful blogger lately! For some strange reason, I really thought I'd have more time for blogging once the lawn mowing and garden tending chores were done for the season, but things haven't turned out that way. Deer hunting seems to be taking up quite a bit of the weekend time, and knitting to keep my Etsy store restocked is keeping me busy indoors. But, I decided to put off housework a little while longer by editing some of the photos that have been in my camera for weeks and getting this blog post ready today (actually anything that delays housework is a good thing -- at least for me!)

Our deer have been quite busy in the backyard lately. With all the rain and snow we've been having, their tracks are quite evident and also the fact that the corn trays are emptied nearly every night. I put a couple of the trail cameras in strategic locations and here's a few shots from last week. This one is my fave! I wonder what they're looking at? Could be the gray fox or maybe the possum I saw again Friday night for the first time since last spring.

I like the trail cameras because they tell us what time the deer are showing up. The other morning there was a nice big doe here at 4 AM when I took Sophie out. I always keep her on the leash now (since the skunk incident), but that doe didn't even run away when Sophie started barking at her. We walked within about 18 yards of her and she finally ran.

This little buck was a complete surprise! We're rapidly approaching the deer's first "rut" season (this year it will coincide with the full moon in the first week of November). I'll have to put the cameras on again next week to see what other interesting pictures we get.

By now, most of you have probably heard we had a little snowstorm last week. Here's what it looked like out my backdoor on Friday afternoon. This was completely unexpected!

We ended up with 4.1 inches of snow! This broke the previous record set in 1910! It was awful wet and sticky snow--great for snowmen but pretty horrible for driving in. We saw quite a few cars in the ditch on the way home from work. Thankfully it was all melted by Saturday afternoon. (I'm really glad I finally got my carrots dug up earlier this week.)

This little song sparrow was right outside my back door looking for seeds on that snowy Friday. They're usually the first migrant sparrow to show up in my backyard in the spring, but I almost never see them -- especially this close to the house. I checked my migration chart and it said they usually head south around the 3rd week of October. I bet this guy was wishing he'd left last week instead!

The end of fall also marks the time when pocket gophers are extra busy digging new holes before the ground freezes for winter. Mr. Johnson has been busy trapping them again lately and it looks like this particular pocket gopher decided to get his revenge by digging in my weedy perennial beds right next to the house! Grrrrrr! I hope it dries out in a couple days so I can get this mess cleaned up before winter.

On my way to a medical appointment a few weeks ago, I happened to spot these lovely cattle on a little farm not far from here. I didn't have the camera with me, but was on the same road a few days later and stopped the car to get out and take some pictures. In this area where Holsteins, black Angus, and red & white Herefords are the norm, these cattle are definitely a unique sight. I love that face!

They are White Park Cattle (I had to google that!) These guys were all napping in the pasture on this fine sunny afternoon, but as soon as I parked the car and started walking up to the fence, they all got up and trotted over to investigate me. I resisted putting my hand out for them to get a sniff (even though I really wanted to). I just thought they were cute and unique and wanted to share these photos with you.
Have a good week everyone!

Have you read this book yet?

Are you a Birdwatcher's Digest subscriber? If so, perhaps you read Julie Zickefoose's recent review of the book "Life List" by Olivia Gentile. After reading Julie's review, I was able to borrow this book from my local public library.

This is an amazing story about Phoebe Snetsinger, a phenomonal birder with a life list obsession. It's an extremely well-written story and captured my attention from start to finish. Without giving away any details, I believe this story may be especially appealing to any woman who is a birder, a mother, a wife, or has any particular hobby or interest that you've ever become even marginally obsessive about.

After finishing the book I couldn't decide whether I was glad that I don't have any obsessions like this (bordering on mental illness, in my opinion) or whether I am a lazy underachiever for not pursuing anything in my life with more single-mindedness!

If you get a chance to read the book, let me know what you think about it.

Another Miscellaneous Monday

There's a special event coming up and you're invited to attend if you can answer "yes" to these 3 simple questions: 1) Do you enjoy birds and nature? 2) Do you live within 150 miles of St. Paul, Minnesota? 3) Are you free next Saturday (August 15th)?

Even if you don't blog, tweet or chirp, you can be a part of the "Birders Who Blog, Tweet and Chirp" birding event in the Twin Cities. Check out all the details here at Lynne's blog. And I want to personally invite my blog readers from the area (Stephen, Kathy, Jess, Val, Danielle, Barefoot Gardener, Deb, Mike, Toniya, Richard, Marsha, Brother Dave, and Cindy from Waterville). Long-range weather predictions are forecasting a perfect day for being outside and I would sure enjoy the chance to meet any (or all!) of you in person. Hope to see you next Saturday!


Here are just a few pictures that I've taken in the last few days that you might bring a smile to your face.

Here's silly Penny taking a nap -- does that look comfortable to you??


There, that's better and definitely looks more comfortable.

I believe Mr. Bunny Rabbit thought he wouldn't be noticed there between the peas and carrots! Unfortunately for him, my vantage point from the second story deck busted him in a second.

This is one of the baby chickadees that hatched in my yard earlier this summer. They're so demanding!

And here's backyard bird #46 for 2009. I know all you city dwellers with an over-abundance of pigeons will think I'm nuts, but I was pretty excited to spot this guy on the roof the other night. I guess there are enough barns and silos in the area that pigeons are actually rare in my backyard.

Oh, and one more thing before I forget......I finally got some inventory back on the shelves of my Etsy shop, so be sure and click on the sidebar link right below my profile to see what's new! (thanks!)

Have a good week everyone!

Miscellaneous Stuff & Some Knitting

I got an e-mail notice from the owner of my LYS (local yarn shoppe) this afternoon saying she had just given away the last chemo cap and it was time for us to make some more. The challenge thrown out to us rabid knitters was 30 caps in 30 days and I've decided to accept the challenge. So in order to get my 30 caps done, I'm going to have to take a little break from blogging (and probably Facebook too) and concentrate on this knitting challenge and also some other home and garden activities. Before my break though, I'll share some of the miscellaneous stuff and knitting that has been occupying my time these past couple weeks.

We moved the deer hunting ladder stand last weekend in anticipation of the upcoming archery deer season opener. (Actually we had to move it off some private property where our hunting privileges have recently been revoked.) Anyway, Mr. Johnson had this tree in mind and the ladder stand worked perfectly there. In this picture, he's cutting off a large grapevine that's grown up on this tree. This is a perfect spot right at the intersection of two heavily used deer trails, plus not much underbrush in the woods, so it should be good for birding if the deer activity is slow.

I picked the first zucchini from our garden. They have a somewhat stunted shape, but were very tasty nonetheless. There are plenty of blossoms and more little zucchinis on my two plants. I like this golden variety because they're easy to spot (not like the green ones that sometimes grow to the size of a baseball bat because you couldn't see them under a leaf!)

I'm finally starting to see more juvenile birds around the yard. Here's a cute little cardinal who visited the birdbath on Sunday afternoon.

This juvenile Red-Bellied Woodpecker easily figured out how to get inside the cage to the suet log. This is the first one of these youngsters I've seen this summer too. The adults have also been noticeably absent from my backyard--although they were regular visitors during winter and spring.

And now on to the knitting projects. I've been looking for this book ever since I saw it on another knitting blog and last week I found it at Michael's. There are so many cute patterns in here, so I also picked up three balls of cotton yarn to try some of the designs out.

I don't think I have to tell you what this design is.......

This butterfly turned out really cute too.

Sunflower

Leaping Frog

Hummingbird

I'm still working on the square lace shawl, but have finally gotten to the edging. Here's what I've managed to complete this week for the edging. I know this shawl will be much more impressive once it's all blocked out. I'm still not liking this pattern very much--the written instructions aren't very clear and I wonder if the person who wrote it was a really experienced knitter or expected only advanced knitters would be working on it. I've spent plenty of time re-reading sections and scratching my head trying to figure out what she's doing. The real challenge will come when I get to the first corner with my lace edging, but I'm hoping that once I'm there the written instructions will make perfect sense and the chart will correspond exactly to the number of stitches I'm working (I would hate to give up now that I'm almost done!)

I've also been whipping up some of these "coffee cup sweaters." Aren't they cute? And a good way to use up some of my leftover yarn scraps.

Here's a couple more pairs of the knitted half-mitts I've finally finished too. I love the colors in this self-striping yarn.

This color is called Pink Camouflage. (I honestly don't quite get the pink camouflage thing......but I thought the colors knitted up rather cute for these half-mitts.)

Most of these knitted items are destined for my Etsy shop, which is in desperate need of restocking, so between knitting chemo caps, watching birds, pulling weeds and all the other fun stuff going on around here, I hope to get the Etsy shop "shelves" full again.

I'll be checking in with occasional posts when I can and hoping to stay caught up with everyone's activities. In the meantime, I hope you all have an enjoyable summer!